Over time the reputation of Beowulf as a poem continues to rise. Extant in only one manuscript, yet perhaps the most studied of English poems, it represents a remarkable text and artifact: the first European vernacular epic. And like much of the work of its age, Beowulf exhibits a strong native strain of apocalypticism, a pervasive awareness of the imminence of end-times. The chief source of its apocalyptic power, the poem's beasts, haunts the reader; one cannot depart the poem without a sense that the monsters and heroes continue their battle into the present and beyond.
| ISBN: | 9780820423340 |
| Publication date: | 1st August 1994 |
| Author: | Edward L Risden |
| Publisher: | P. Lang an imprint of Lang, Peter, Publishing Inc. |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 165 pages |
| Series: | Studies in the Humanities |
| Genres: |
Language: reference and general Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval |